Main menu

Friday Facts: The Honorable Harold Ramis, No Batmobiles

:: On this day in 1889, boxer John Lawrence Sullivan punched Mayor John Overholt’s wife directly in the face, knocking her out instantly. No reason was ever given for the assault, and neither the mayor nor Sullivan ever chose to speak of it again.

:: A 1971 city ordinance prohibits the display of the Batmobile (from the famously campy 1960s Batman television show) at any promotional event within city limits.

:: Chief City Health and Hygiene Inspector “Guy” Fenimore celebrates his 57th birthday this week, making him the oldest individual to ever hold that office and, in fact, the only sitting Chief Inspector to ever reach fifty-seven.

:: Other birthdays this week include television meteorologist Howard Tidleiver (43), outspoken former city ombudsperson Claire Dolan (57) and former late-night television host Count Film-Ula (age estimated at either 93 or 97).

:: In a local poll conducted earlier this week, sixteen percent of respondents admitted to participating in physical conflicts stemming from disagreements over the best local pizza restaurant.

:: The Doig Museum of Natural Science was forced to cancel its upcoming exhibit “The Beauty Inside the Human Body,” which was to feature the plasticized remains of actual cadavers, posed artfully to highlight the intricacies of the body’s various organ systems. It was revealed that the pieces for the exhibition were not the masterpieces created by world-renowned German anatomist Gunther von Hagens, but were crudely formed counterfeits prepared by local “artist” Phillip Steven Hodges.

:: Writer/Director Harold Ramis was honored by the city on this day in 2000 and again in 2003.

:: The three Native American figures carved in bas-relief over the archway of the Seventh Central Bank in Southside depict, from left to right, Omaha Chief Deer-In-Water, the famous Chief Sitting Bull, and Chief Yum Yum, an oatmeal mascot from the turn of the twentieth century.– Ray Ingraham, Jon Morris

The Batmobile ordinance was instituted as retaliation against the series for gravely insulting the city’s reputation. In an episode from the 1967 season, Batman and Robin battle arch-villian Muddy Waters (portrayed by legendary bluesman Bo Diddley) in what is described as the “world’s largest garbage dump”. The fact that the world’s largest garbage dump is in fact located within city limits notwithstanding, the implication that city life revolved around said garbage dump was considered defamation to an intolerable degree.

Although the ordinance prohibits display of the Batmobile, Adam West and Burt Ward are still permitted entrance to the city, but not simultaneously and only during daylight hours.